


Disappearing Marks

by chancellorxofxtrash (PhoebeMurdivine)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Spoilers, Unhealthy Relationships, i think the tag for that ship is enough of a warning itself, really just trying to figuring out how to relationship, there is one of these relationships which is exactly as fucked up as you'd expect it to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 19:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11493645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoebeMurdivine/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: Everyone had marks on their skin. Well, the older they got, the more they had. Meaningful events caused them to appear.Meeting your soulmate? Obviously one of those marks.These marks weren't supposed to disappear.





	Disappearing Marks

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the Hina part of this as a birthday gift to birdschach, and then I expanded on it. So here it is, this monster now of multiple pairings and how they cope with what happened.

Everyone had marks on their skin. Well, the older they got, the more they had. Meaningful events caused them to appear, like Hina got her first one when her younger brother was born. And then got when she got her first swimming gold, and she basically never stopped swimming.

Hina got one when she got accepted to Hope’s Peak too, which was also not surprising. Most people who got there, got one, which only got more detailed when they graduated. While having a mark about Hope’s Peak was not something that happened to every graduate, people tended to look funny at graduates who did not have them.

Meeting your soulmate? Obviously one of those marks, and Hina really couldn’t wait getting hers.

-

The killing game had started, and no one got any new marks.

People died, and no one got new marks.

Sakura…

Hina closed herself into her shower, sobbing, trying to look for marks on her skin.

 _It was real_ she thought furiously, although she had no words to say **what** was real _. It was real, so why isn’t my stupid skin changing? Why don’t I have marks? Sakura died, and I got no new marks, what is going on?_

-

Then, of course, they found out what was going on, when Junko was grinning.

“Maaaan, isn’t new technology alllll kinds of amazing?” She cocked out her hip to the side, with a wide, almost feral grin. “Not only I could take your memories away, but I also managed to scrub all the extra stuff off your skin! Scrub-scrub!”

“W--what do you mean extra stuff?” Toko looked taken aback, chewing on her thumb.

“Oh? Did not get it? Maaan, this totally ruined the moment” Junko suddenly looked depressed, twirling her hair around her finger. “And I went soooo far, getting this done for you…”

“Out with your blabbering, and get to the point” Byakuya snapped. “What did you do?”

“Alright… I maaaay have wiped the new marks you got after entering Hope’s Peak.” Junko’s entire face moved again, into a maniacal grin. “Ha! Got it ya little shits? Did you seriously think none of you had met your soulmates in here during these years? Yep you did! And some of them are already dead, isn’t it just the most fucking despair-inducing ever? Sucks to be youuuu!”

“Who… who had met their soulmates?” Hina stammered it out.

“Bwah! As if I’d tell you, suckers! That’s not the fucking point here! Point is, I scrubbed your skin off. Probably permanently. Whoopsie-daisy! You will probably never fucking gain any marks again later on! Which won’t matter shit if you lose our wager here as you’ll be fucking dead either way, so can we get back to the point here?”

-

She remembered.

She remembered the cherry blossom mark on her back, enveloping the back of her shoulders.

She remembered the althea flowers blooming on the back of Sakura’s back.

-

“Do you ever wish that we would have just… not gotten our memories back?”

She asked this from Makoto, later, reading some reports, and finding herself trailing off over and over again in her thoughts.

“Huh…?”

Hina smiled a little, sadly.

“Although, I suppose you don’t. Don’t you miss your marks, though?”

Makoto also lost his soulmate mark, Hina had known that, although his situation was better than Hina’s, and Makoto just put down the folder he was reading.

“I… sometimes it’s hard. Remembering them. Especially the ones we had to vote for. Even… remembering Junko sometimes is hard.”

“We didn’t have a choice in voting for them.”

“I know, but… you know it doesn’t make it easier.”

Of course it didn’t make anything easier.

“To answer your question… yeah. I miss them. The marks on my skin, I mean. I think everyone does.”

Hina was still smiling, but she felt tears trail down her face.

“The others would not say it, though. Kyoko and Byakuya are so reserved, Toko suppresses it all, and Hiro would probably act like he isn’t bothered as well. I guess it’s makes sense it’s just us softies talking about this, huh?”

Makoto laughed a little.

“Yeah, I guess you are right. Buuut, I have an idea. We did it sometimes, if… you want to try.”

-

It wasn’t the same, it wasn’t only because Makoto was only okayish at drawing flowers. It was a bit awkward, sitting in front of Makoto in a sports bra, but then again it was _Makoto,_ ridiculously harmless little boy, who probably didn’t have a mean bone in his entire body. And he was trying his best to draw the sakura flowers on her back.

“I mean… it won’t be the same. It never will. But…”

But it was better than nothing, was it not?

Hina couldn’t imagine Makoto doing this with Kyoko and Byakuya, but she supposed they were different when only alone with their soulmates.

-

-

Actually Byakuya was not that different. He still had a hard shell to get through, and just glared at them condescendingly.

“I have no need for such childish fantasies. The marks are gone, but not like it changes anything, does it? Not like anyone needs any kind of foolish proof or anything of the sort. I do not see why this would be relevant, or even a desirable thing to do, frankly.”

By this point, they remembered, and they even had to confront what they remembered. As Kyoko put it, it wasn’t that much of a shock, by the end of their captivity - but it was Kyoko who said this, and of course she would have an easier time connecting the dots in her head.

Makoto was quite surprised, actually, and nobody could actually tell what Byakuya was thinking, and things had gotten more complicated when they started to sort out their memories.

Saying that they had been dating back at Hope's Peak maybe was not the best word. But they weren’t not-dating either. It certainly felt like to Makoto that he was taken, but the three of them never actually did couple-y things. They did go out to places, but there was no handholding, they did not go out to have dinners or to the cinema, or anything really couple-y.

They didn’t even kiss, not even once, and then the Tragedy happened, and it just didn’t seem like the right time and then…

And then they all forgot.

So it wasn’t until much later, until they were with the Future Foundation, that Makoto took a deep breath, one time when they were alone.

“Um… guys?”

He kissed Byakuya first - it wasn’t a preference, simply he felt like Byakuya might back off if he were to kiss Kyoko first. To be honest, he was a bit still worried Byakuya would push him away.

It was hard to read Byakuya, after all, even if Makoto was actually quite sure, when he stood on his tiptoes to kiss him

And indeed, he did kiss him back.

Kyoko wasn’t even surprised when he leaned to her next, and she kissed him back as well.

“What brought this on suddenly?”

Byakuya was the one who asked obviously, and Makoto smiled.

“We waited for a long while hadn’t we?”

“Indeed” Kyoko nodded.

Then she faced Byakuya, grabbing his shirt.

“Come down here, then.”

Byakuya frowned, but he did lean down to kiss her.

-

All in all, it didn’t change too much. Neither Kyoko nor Byakuya was really the affectionate type, but the two of them didn’t mind Makoto leaning to their sides, or occasionally to cuddle up to them, and he really didn’t mind their more distant nature either.

That’s how he fell for them, after all.

But Byakuya was frowning, sitting on the bed with the other two, while they were doodling, clearly not understanding their intentions, or at least thinking them foolish.

“You should practice, Byakuya” Kyoko said with a deadpan voice. “You wouldn’t want to mess up when you will draw on Makoto, would you?”

“I will not _mess up,_ Kyoko.”

“Sure. Have a piece of paper.”

Their marks weren’t that complex - it was a triple spiral on all three of them, on their ankles to be precise. It actually took them a while to identify each other back then in Hope’s Peak, exactly because of their hidden place.

(Makoto found Kyoko first. Kyoko had a theory that the triple spiral meant there were three of them. It took a while to actually track down that Byakuya had the third.)

But now, they didn’t have them anymore - so after practicing, Makoto drew it on Kyoko’s ankle, and Kyoko extended a hand towards Byakuya.

“Give me your leg.”

And he did, albeit not without rolling his eyes.

And he also drew the third one on Makoto’s leg.

Honestly, he fooled neither of them.

-

-

Toko Fukawa did not have a soulmate mark, and hers did not appear during her stay in Hope’s Peak either, if her memories could be trusted.

And why wouldn’t they be?

Problem with this was, that she will not have a mark on her skin, if what Junko said was correct. If by any chance, she had a soulmate out there (in case she didn’t have such horrible luck that her soulmate perished during the Tragedy), how the hell was she supposed to know?

Whatever. Her Master had his soulmates, but it didn’t mean she didn’t have a chance, right? Soulmates were not always romantic! Maybe they were just… just supposed to be her buisness partners. Right.

That until Komaru Naegi appeared in her life.

She didn’t plan on being attached to her (then again she didn’t plan on befriending her brother either, so she could just blame the Naegi siblings for being so damn clingy). But it still happened, maybe it’s kind of a thing too, being attached to people in stressful situations.

At least that’s what she thought until Komaru walked up to her, obviously kind of uncomfortable.

“Um… so uh… Makoto told me about Junko erasing all your marks, right?”

Oh great.

She had to bring up _that._

“N-not all of them” Toko bit her thumb nervously. “Just the ones we got after entering Hope’s Peak. My last mark is t---the Hope’s Peak Academy crest I got af-after being scouted.”

“So… uhm… I didn’t know that so I thought you just… didn’t want to talk about it, so uh… but I think I should… tell you then?”

Toko was confused, especially when Komaru loosened the neck of her shirt, and pulled it down a bit.

And there was a mark in the shape of an old calligraphy pen.

“I got this… I thought you also have one just… don’t want to talk about it… so I didn’t.”

Oh.

Oh shit.

Komaru fixed her shirt up, still embarrassed.

“I… I don’t… Toko, I just want to be by your side. Isn’t that good?”

It was okay, it was okay, itwasokayitwasokay.

Soulmates don’t have to be romantic, right? And Komaru was indeed one of the most important people to her.

“Yeah… yeah, actually… if it has to be someone… I’m glad it’s you.”

It seemed like a big weight had fallen off from Komaru’s shoulders.

-

Until at one point apparently Genocide Jack tried to make out with Komaru, which of course made everything more complicated.

But they had to figure it out. Slowly, but surely.

Toko did sometimes wonder what would have been the mark meeting Komaru would have caused on her skin, but not like she’ll ever find it out.

-

-

The former 78th class weren’t the only ones in a similar predictament, though.

Thanks to Junko Enoshima. Obviously.

-

-

Obviously it was Nagito who brought it first up. Because who else? Everyone had enough filters to stop themselves from bringing it up.

“Hey, Hajime… I have a question.”

Hajime closed his eyes, and decided to ignore him. Maybe if he ignores him, he’ll go away.

“You don’t have to answer, if you don’t want to. After all, this will be an extremely personal question, and why would you even tell it to someone like me…”

“...just get to the point, okay?”

Apparently this wasn’t a day where Nagito would let himself be ignored.

“Have you gotten any new marks since getting to the island?”

Hajime dropped the book from his hand.

This definitely wasn’t something someone asked another out of the blue, unless they were extremely close, and Nagito Komaeda… was not that. At all.

“W---why would you ask that?”

People got marks when something significant happened in their lives, meeting their soulmates being one of them. Hajime didn’t have a lot of marks, but he was still young, after all, wasn’t he? He had time. Unlike the others, he didn't have Hope's Peak's crest on his skin either, but... not like that was unusual either. Not all Hope's Peak attendees had that mark on their skin.

Nagito stepped back a little, raising his hands defensively.

“I know, I know, I’m horrible for asking this! Clearly I am the worst, and I have no right to ask this question. But I have to admit I’ve been wondering, Hajime. I certainly didn’t! I hadn't gotten a single mark since I got Hope's Peak crest on my skin after they scouted me. And I don’t think anyone else had gotten either! Isn’t it weird? It’s just a theory, but I think it’s very weird. I mean if I’d ask anyone else, someone might kill me… without even working with me… that would be unfortunate. No way I could help them that way.”

“Slow down, hold on, why would it be weird?”

“Oh, you know… nothing. Don’t even pay attention to me.”

Nagito turned away, and Hajime reached out after him grabbing his arm, forcing him to stay.

“Stop doing that!”

“...doing what?”

Looking into Nagito’s wide, innocent-looking eyes, most people would have been fooled.

Hell… Hajime himself had been fooled by this previously too.

“Say something is not important when it surely is. You brought it up, would you _please_ tell me what are you wondering about?”

Nagito’s face lit up, as if Hajime had asked him to let’s bring Christmas ahead a few months.

“Oh! Are you really curious about the suspicions of someone irrelevant such as me? You are truly amazing, Hajime! You must have some truly shining talent, don’t you?”

“...whatever, come on, tell me.”

“Don’t you think something this despair-inducing, something this hope-raising, as life-changing as a mutual killing game would cause at least some of us develop marks? Surely something like this would be significant enough, right? Not even Fuyuhiko got marks after Peko died....”

“Wait, he told that to you?!”

“No, I did not ask him, he was asleep… I asked Mikan though, who was treating him, and she told me there were no fresh marks!”

“...that is even worse.”

As per usual, Nagito ignored Hajime’s complaints, and just continued on.

“See? Something is weird. Why wouldn’t we get marks, when something this life-changing is going on? Definitely something to think about, don’t you agree? Oh well, it’s fine if you don’t… it’s just the silly ramblings of irrelevant trash like me. Sorry for bothering you with this.”

Hajime sighed, letting go of Nagito’s arm.

“No, you… you’re right. But… I can’t think of anything that could cause this. Maybe Monokuma did something to our bodies?”

“Hmmm… or the Future Foundation did. You know, according to him they put us in here, and they stole our memories, didn’t they? If they can steal our memories…”

“Wait” Hajime raised a hand, frowning. “I wonder… I wonder how much time we forgot.”

“Huh…?” Nagito tilted his head a little, confused.

“I mean… if it’s just a few weeks or months it’s fine, but if it’s more time… we could have gotten more marks right? Hope’s Peak… it sounds like a school where a lot of marks could appear doesn’t it? Like Fuyuhiko’s sister died, and so did Mahiru’s friend. So…”

“...so why didn’t they get marks about that, huh? Great point! Wow, Hajime! I didn’t even…”

“Don’t say you didn’t think about it” Hajime said tiredly. “You always do.”

“You expect too much of me!”

“I really, really don’t.”

Either way, it wasn’t like they could do anything about it. Monokuma would probably just laugh and taunt them about it, Monomi would just run away, and if they had told anyone else, they would just freak out.

So Hajime said nothing.

-

And it wasn’t until later that he got the answer to what happened.

Obviously in the virtual world they didn’t get marks.

Their real bodies were different.

But that wasn’t all, was it?

It never was.

-

“And, and and guess what, Hajime! Do you have marks on your skin now? Well, even if you do, it does not matter! Look at them, take the sight of them in, because your body out there has no marks anymore! The Academy thought that having marks would cause their precious perfect project to grow attached to something else other than pure talents. Soooo, next to all the other messed-up stuff the Academy did to your brain, they also wiped your skin completely clean! All your marks are gone from your body! Oh, and that’s not all, no way. Even if your Hajime avatar gets uploaded to your body, and keep your memories and personality… you will never have marks again. Sorry! So uh, if you are yet to meet your soulmate, sucks to be you, Hajime. My condolences. Man, this seriously sucks, doesn’t it?”

-

He really wanted this to be one of Junko Enoshima’s lies.

It wasn’t.

Obviously.

-

There were a lot of things Hajime remembered, that he wished he hadn’t. Obviously this was the same for the others.

The others had to rediscover their marks on their original bodies - like every single one of them having Monokuma’s eye somewhere on their skin.

It took all of the Future Foundation’s efforts to convince them to not try to cut it out.

And then again - this was part of them now wasn’t it? There was nowhere to hide from it.

That’s who they were.

Aside from Hajime, his skin completely blank, void of any marks whatsoever.

Worst thing is?

He remembered having a soulmate mark.

-

Oh, he didn’t actually know who was his soulmate. He remembered one day, going home from school, and seeing the figure of a white dove on his right wrist.

Soulmate marks never hurt when they appear. That’s how you know they are soulmate marks.

And he had no idea who could have been his soulmate, and he never saw anyone with the same mark.

-

He also remembered some things, some things he’d rather forget, but then again, it probably wasn’t really him now, was it. No, it was Izuru, but now Izuru’s and his emotions and memories were mixing up.

And he wished he hadn’t remembered Junko straddling him, giggling, Nagito being behind him, and pulled even closer by a chain around his neck by Junko, with a disturbing smile on his face.

“If you two want to do this, you should start it already, and get it over with. Aren’t you about to be locked into the school either way?”

Junko had an almost blissful expression on her face, as she was toying with Izuru’s tie and Nagito buried his face into his neck from the back.

“Ahhh, yes. Who knows when will we see each other again~ how crueeel~ Hey, hey, Izuru, gonna miss me?”

“Hardly.”

“How cruel of you~” Junko whispered, pulling herself even closer, it was even harder to tell when each of their bodies ended and where they began. “You have no idea who could your soulmate be riiiight Izuruuuu? Who knooows, maybe it’s us~”

“Doubt that” Izuru’s eyes narrowed, but he still put an arm around Junko’s waist, pulling her closer, and leant back, letting himself be held up by Nagito. “Didn’t you kill your soulmate?”

“Details, details~” Junko was purring now, also biting down on Izuru’s neck. “Heyyy, Nagito what about you? Gonna miss me?”

“Sure” Nagito looked up with a serene smile, and Izuru felt his breath on his skin still. “But I’ll miss Izuru more.”

“How rude. And you’re my follower. Hmpf. What a useless one.”

“I know! I am the most useless of them all, aren’t I? Hey, are you going to miss us?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Junko straightened up, a grin on her face. “I will have my amazing classmates with me, you fucking idiot. Why the fuck would I miss you? Are you going to fuck me or not?”

-

Hajime didn’t want to remember these kinds of things.

He did, either way.

He didn’t actually know how did Izuru knew about Junko killing her soulmate, and honestly, he didn’t care. Of course it sounded on par with her. Of course she would.

-

Then one day, after it was all over, and they left with the ship, after they helped the Future Foundation stop the Tragedy…

He saw Nagito’s wrist.

Which had a white dove on it.

Okay.

Okay, he can deal with this. He decided to not be so indecisive, after all, and for things like this, he really couldn’t rely on Izuru, even though Izuru being there complicated everything.

He could deal with this.

But before that, he went back to his cabin and screamed for ten minutes.

-

“Didn’t you decide not to be that indecisive? And get off my damn bed, Hajime.”

Fuyuhiko frowned at him, as Hajime sat up, and looked up at his friend with wide eyes.

“It’s easy for you to say. Your soulmate is Peko, and you had always known that.”

“Yeah, I had always known. But all these years I still hadn’t figured out what kind of soulmate she is, jackass” Fuyuhiko shook his head furiously. “Still not sure. Not always romantic, you know. Maybe Nagito isn’t your romantic soulmate either.”

Hajime groaned, and leaned back down to the bed, ignoring Fuyuhiko’s protests.

“...or is he your romantic soulmate?”

“I don’t know! It’s Nagito! Everything is confusing with Nagito!”

“No fucking shit, jackass” Fuyuhiko muttered, walking over, and literally starting to yank on Hajime’s leg to get him off the bed. “You can’t fucking keep this a secret from him.”

“Technically I could” Hajime muttered, unmoving. He was bigger and heavier than Fuyuhiko, after all. “I don’t have the mark anymore.”

“Yeah, you could. But I don’t think you should, and I also don’t think that you will. You might be a bed-hogging jackass, but not that kind of jackass.”

“...thanks Fuyuhiko.”

“No problem. Now get off my damn bed, and go talk with him.”

-

“Nagito, about the dove on your hand…”

“Oh? This?”

Nagito looked down at his wrist, with a confused, but still serene expression on his face.

“Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a soulmate mark, you know!”

“...do you know who your soulmate is?”

“I don’t have the faintest idea!” Nagito shook his head, and smiled a little. “But I don’t mind. I think they are better off without me as well. Maybe we crossed each others’ paths on the street one day. Two strangers, nothing more. I hope they are alive, though.”

“...they are. I mean… he is. I am.”

_Smooth, Hajime._

_Very smooth._

Nagito looked up at him, tilting his head a little.

“Huh…?”

“I mean I… I don’t have it anymore, but I… used to have the same dove. On my right wrist. And it also just appeared but I sometimes walked around the main course building of Hope’s Peak, so maybe we really walked past each other there, and of course we didn’t even look at each other probably but…”

Hajime realised he was babbling, which was usually Nagito’s thing, so he just shut up, and looked at Nagito, who looked at him with wide eyes.

He remembered Nagito, full of despair, and the way his lips felt, and a shiver ran down his spine.

It was very hard to make distinctions between Izuru and him, after all.

“Oh… oh Hajime, I’m so sorry” Nagito looked geniunely upset. “Should I cut down my other hand so you don’t have to look at it anymore?”

“Oh for-- obviously not!” Hajime reached out, grabbing Nagito’s shoulders, shaking him a little. “I don’t ever want you to hurt yourself anymore ever again, got it?”

“But Hajime…” Nagito muttered, looking into his eyes. “You would deserve a better soulmate.”

“Stop with the self-deprecation already.”

“But it’s the tru---”

Apparently the only way to shut up Nagito Komaeda was, to kiss him.

He let out a small squeak in response, which shouldn’t have been this adorable, seeing as it was _Nagito_ who let out that sound, but he kissed him back, if a bit awkwardly.

“...Hajime that was very smooth. Who knew you could do things like that, after you got tricked into spending millions for a cheap sticker?”

Hajime ended up letting go of Nagito, just to throw his hands in the air.

His soulmate was an absolute shit, and he still had to eventually figure out what was this really between them, and of course there was the Izuru-shaped complication too.

But so far, things were getting along.

And that’s what really mattered wasn’t it?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
